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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Drafting Facings

Hey all! This is a sew-along post, but even if you're not sewing along, drafting your own facings is a great skill to have. And it couldn't be easier! There are plenty of times you might need to draft your own facings. You may have made so many fitting changes on your pattern that it's easier to start from scratch on your facings. Or your pattern may call for just a lining, but you'd prefer facings. No problemo!

A facing simply encloses the neck, armhole, waistline, or hem. A facing pattern follows the outline of the pattern piece, but is (usually) only 2" wide--plus another 5/8" for the seam allowance.

So, to make a facing for the Crepe neckline, I'm going to start by drawing a line 2-5/8" away from the pattern edge using a clear gridded ruler to help me. This is the outer edge of my facing pattern.

Finish off the piece by tracing the neckline and shoulder. This is your facing pattern.

That's all there is to it! Make sure you transfer any marks, like grainline, etc. This piece will be cut on the fold, so make sure to indicate that.

Next, let's take a look at the armhole facing. This looks tricky because it's such a curvy shape, but it's the exact same process as with the neckline. Start by measuring and drawing your line 2-5/8" away from the armhole line.

And finish up by tracing your outer armhole and shoulder line. (My lines are just approximate, FYI!)

Does that make sense?

Now repeat the process for the back neckline and armhole.

Another reminder for sew-alongers: make sure your bodice waistline still matches up to your skirt waistline. Add or remove width as needed!

11 comments:

Fabulous, thank you! I'm not in your sewalong (unfortunately the crepe dress is a style I just look terrible in!) but I'm going to need to do this when finish drafting the bodice for my "Go To" dress.So straightforward, thankyou Gertie.Portiaxxx

Great! I'm still struggling with my muslin -- I took it in at the shoulders and the sides and now I can't get the armholes to be the proper size. (Did anyone else have this problem?) The entire time I kept thinking: how how am I going to do the facings? Hopefully I'll finish the muslin tonight because I can't wait to cut into my good fabric!

Great! I'm still struggling with my muslin -- I took it in at the shoulders and the sides and now I can't get the armholes to be the proper size. (Did anyone else have this problem?) The entire time I kept thinking: how how am I going to do the facings? Hopefully I'll finish the muslin tonight because I can't wait to cut into my good fabric!

Thanks Gertie! You've confirmed what I figured out two nights ago and also added to it. I finally made the final adjustments to my muslin and wanted to check the layout of my pattern pieces, so I went ahead and re-drafted the facing pieces then. I'm basically caught up at this point and waiting for the weather to clear up down here in Atlanta so I can go buy a few things I need that I thought I had. :P

I've used this method myself and figured what I was doing was kind of haphazard as I made it up as I want, so I'm glad for this post! The only thing I had to keep in mind was that I had a really skimpy amount of fabric and had to make a seam at the back of the neck in the facing. In my muslin, I forgot to account for the 5/8" seam allowance in my pieces. I admit I don't always make muslins but I sure was glad I did that time.

Thank you thank you thank you!!! This is not in response to this specific post, but to all of them! You have great skill at explaining everything, and I really appreciate you sharing it with all of us! I can't wait for your book to come out - I am definitely going to be buying it!! :D

It's late at night and I don't have my pattern in front of me but when I last looked at it over a week ago I noticed that the front sleeve facings on the pattern don't seem to work the way you've illustrated here (though the neck facings and the back sleeve facing do). I was looking at my facings to check they were still right after my adjustments and had to go back to the original pattern at one point when I noticed this. When I held the (original pattern) facing piece over the (original pattern) front piece it didn't match. Has anyone else noticed this?